Final Is Blackened by Too Much Yellow

Spain can lay claim to be the masters of two global sports right now. Just as important, its players know how to fight for the right to be champions, and how to treat victory the right way.

Rafael Nadal, having confirmed his No. 1 status in tennis this month, came to Soccer City Stadium near Soweto on Sunday night to cheer on his countrymen. In tennis a man has to win for himself, but in soccer any man among the 11 can win it. And on this night Nadal’s equal in the eyes of Spanish sports fans was Andrés Iniesta.

A diminutive midfielder with a huge heart, Iniesta was manhandled by Dutchmen whose coach, Bert van Marwijk, admitted, “Our fouls may be a sad thing for a final, but it is not our style.

“I would have loved to have won it with football that is not so beautiful.”

Van Marwijk’s team might have carried to the extreme his instructions to prevent Spain from building its midfield rhythm at all costs. At times, the Dutch tried to kick the substance out of the world’s best team. They almost succeeded.

“I can’t quite believe this yet,” Iniesta said in the interview room beneath the stadium shortly before midnight. “I had the opportunity to score that goal that was so important for my team, and it’s incredible.

“I’ve made a small contribution in a very tough game, a very rough game — there were all sorts of things happening on the pitch.”

He sat before us, all 5 feet 7 inches of him, looking like a schoolboy rather than a man who had just been subjected to two hours of intimidation aimed at disabling his technical artistry. Iniesta shares with Nadal the temperament to compete like a tiger and to take the plaudits with something bordering on humility.

Rapt as we sometimes are in sports, we scarcely noticed how the tournament, and the environment around it, had changed for this 64th and final game. We saw how the relaxed policing of the entire tournament was replaced by a heavy military presence, with tanks inside the compound of Soccer City.

We had no knowledge of what was happening in Uganda, where people watching the final, as others did all across the world, were slaughtered by terrorists. We, in our cocoon, simply asked questions of men who played a game that, in their minds and for a while in ours, represented the pinnacle of life.

Justice did not arrive almost until time ran out, with the dreaded shootout looming.

For 115 minutes, the Dutch players had done what they said they were prepared to do: they played ugly. They blamed their history, feeling that the team inspired by Johan Cruyff in the 1970s had lost two finals in spite of its talent. This time, seemingly afraid of the gifted Spaniards, they opted to knock them down.

There has never been so foul an intent in the 40 years I have watched the World Cup. Sadly, the English referee Howard Webb added to it by handing out only yellow cards to eight Dutch players.

The red stayed in his pocket until extra time, when John Heitinga, who had received a yellow card, brought down Iniesta to prevent a scoring opportunity. In some circles that is seen as a team-oriented act, deliberately accepting a second card to prevent what could have been the winning goal.

Photo

Xabi Alonso of Spain was booted in the ribcage by Nigel de Jong, who did not receive a red card for the foul.Credit
Kim Ludbrook/European Pressphoto Agency

It stands up there — or down —with Luis Suárez’s deliberate handball to prevent a winning goal by Ghana in the final seconds of a game that Uruguay went on to win on penalty kicks.

Long before Heitinga was sent off, Webb had the ability to protect the Spanish players from numerous fouls, notably by Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong.

The worst of those fouls came after 28 minutes when de Jong booted Xabi Alonso in the rib cage. Had Webb sent off de Jong for that, maybe the game would have reverted to being just a game. The referee chose to give him a yellow card, and the mayhem went on.

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Yes, the Spanish players retaliated, sometimes with kicks of their own. But when a team is in the World Cup final against an opponent that has said it was prepared to win ugly, it has little choice but to defend itself and show that it will not be intimidated.

When Spain’s goal finally came, it arrived with beauty. Iniesta had been the outstanding player on the field, and was probably the most fouled as well.

When his chance came, he did not hesitate. His volley into the opposite corner of the net was a difficult play at the best of times. In the 116th minute of the World Cup final, with his legs bruised and his energy level sapped, it was truly exceptional.

Iniesta then took off his jersey to reveal a white undershirt. It was inscribed, “Dani Jarque siempre con nosotros”: Dani Jarque always with us.

Jarque was a player on Espanyol, the rival team to F. C. Barcelona in the same Catalan city. In August 2009 he died at age 26 of a heart attack.

Iniesta was given an automatic yellow card for taking off his jersey after he scored the most decisive goal in Spain’s history.

“I wanted to carry Dani Jarque with me, and so did the other players,” Iniesta told us. “And I think this was the best tribute.”

FIFA, soccer’s governing body, is uncompromising when it comes to this rule. Any player who removes his shirt when celebrating a goal, regardless of reason or sentiment, receives a yellow card.

So Iniesta received the same punishment that players received for kicks that had the potential to injure.

The correct team won the World Cup. Spain had overcome Germany, which uncharacteristically retreated before it in the semifinal. It had withstood the Netherlands’ best and worst efforts. And Spain, these days more committed to beauty in the game than Brazil is, has won 51 and lost only 2 of its last 55 matches.

Iniesta had shown some humanity with his gesture and accepted the consequences. But he triumphed in a final game that almost shamed the tournament.

The Dutch, when they reflect on their performance, will know that they threw away a great opportunity. The two best teams of this World Cup were on the field in Soccer City, but one of them was not content to let skill decide the game. Thankfully, it lost.

Correction: July 12, 2010

A previous version of this article referred to Andrés Iniesta as Catalan. He is not.

A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2010, on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Final Is Blackened By Too Much Yellow. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe